Polanski's "Pianist" Tops French Cesar Awards

Adrien Brody, star of "The Pianist," won the best actor award at the Cesars, while the film won the prize for best film.Courtesy of Focus Features

"The Pianist," the acclaimed film from Roman Polanski, was the big winner on Saturday night at the presentation of the annual Cesar awards in Paris, France. The film won six awards at the Cesars, including prizes for best film, best director for Polanski, best actor for Adrien Brody and honors for music (Wojciech Kilar), cinematogrephy (Pawel Edelman), and production design (Allan Starski). "The Pianist" debuted in Cannes last year where it won the Palme de Or, the festival's top award.

"Se Souvenir des Belles Choses" (Beautiful Memories) won three prizes on Saturday night. Zabou Breitman won the prize for best first film and it also nabbed acting awards. The prize for best actress went to Isabelle Carre, while Bernard Le Coq won the best supporting actress award. As mentioned, the best actor award went to Adrien Brody, while the best supporting actress prize was presented to Karin Viard for "Embrassez Qui Vous Voudrez" (See How They Run).

Newcomer prizes went to Jean-Paul Rouve for "Monsieur Batignole" and Cecile de France for "L'auberge Espagnole".

Saturday evenings event was dedicated to Daniel Toscan du Plantier, the head of the Cesar organization and Unifrance, who died earlier this month while attending the Berlin International Film Festival.